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Urban and Spatial Planning in Japan • M View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Directory of Open Access Journals Urbanism Urban and spatial planning in Japan • M. Tominaga URBAN AND SPATIAL PLANNING IN JAPAN Marin TOMINAGA A Master Course Student of Graduate School of Tohoku University, Department of Architecture and Building Science, [email protected] Abstract . This paper aims to introduce the urban and spatial planning in Japan. According to the national planning system of Japan, chapter 2, the planning system has 3 administrative levels and each territorial region has its own regulation. This paper introduces especially about planning and regulation system in city region in Japan. Key words : urban and spatial planning, Japan, land use, Master Plan 1. The prefectural governments and 2. The planning and regulation system municipalities of Japan First of all, Japanese territory is divided into 47 units called prefectural 2.1. The national planning system of Japan governments (Fig.1). Each of them has its National Land Use Planning Law is a land own administrative organization. The use plan and also a regulation that aims to prefectural governments, differ from the use the national territory comprehensively municipalities which are locally based and systematically (Fig. 3). The law public organizations, in that they are establishes National Planning, Prefectural concerned more comprehensively with a Planning and Municipal Planning. The wider local area. Municipalities are the general plan for land use is as the basis for collective term of city (called shi ), town National and Prefectural Planning. The (called machi ), village (called mura ), and Prefectural Planning sets out five regions district (called ku which exists only in in each prefecture; a city region which is Tokyo) and each municipality also has its an area that needs to be developed and own administrative organization. There maintained as an integrated city, an are 786 cities, 753 towns, 184 villages and agricultural region of which the primary 23 districts in Japan (01/08/2011). concern should be to promote agriculture, a forest region which promotes the forest industry or maintains and enhances the variety of functions of the forest, a natural park region which has good natural scenery which should be preserved and its usage promoted and a nature conservation region which has good natural environment and should be preserved. The land use in each area is conducted Fig. 1 . Prefectural governments in Japan with based on a plan which is established by the individual method, for example 29 Urbanism. Arhitectură. Construcţii • Vol. 2 • Nr. 4 • 2011 • City Planning Law. The general plan investments more efficient and promote functions to adjust the administrative the land use reasonably and soundly. It is division as the upper level plan of them. effective to designate the City Planning Area for the following reason. At first it 2.2. The definition of city planning area will be regarded as a target for Area In 1919, a general idea called City Planning Division (terms described 2.4). Second, Area was brought in the City Planning the developments in the area are Law in Japan. According to the operational demanded the development permissions. guideline of city planning, there are the Third, it is applied to the group rule areas which need to be adjusted, which is a stipulation of the relationship developed and maintained between buildings and cities in the comprehensively as a unified city and Building Standards Law. these are also the areas which are designated as the compass that can be sufficient to arrange the lands and facilities. The specific definitions of City Planning Area are as follows; 1) it has 10,000 people in the municipality and 50% of the total employed workers are involved in commerce and industry or urban business categories, 2) it can be expected to meet the preceding issue of 1) in 10 years over the pace of development and the prediction of population and industry, 3) the central area of the target municipalities have over 3,000 of population, 4) specially good environment of the city needs to be developed in the city since it has resources for tourism and is expected a lot of tourists come, 5) a disaster Fig. 2. An example of the City Planning Area has ruined quite a few buildings in the city central area and there have been a need for recovering systematically. 2.3. The regulation of land use In the City Planning Area, it becomes to The City Planning Area covers only 25.7% be possible to divide the area into two of Japanese territory but 91.6% of the areas, Urbanization Promoting Area and population live in the area. However, it Urbanization-restricted Area (the City has to be careful that the City Planning Planning Law, Article 7). According to the Area is not always specified to a whole City Planning Law, the Urbanization area of a municipality but there are 4 Promoting Area is defined as an area cases how to set it (Fig.4). Accoeding to which already forms urban area and figure 4, Senen extensive city planning should be urbanized preferentially and area corresponds to the case 4. How to systematically during about 10 years and designate the city planning area is the Urbanization-restricted Area is depends on the situation of the defined as an area which should be municipalities. The purpose of specify the controlled its urbanization (Fig.6). City Planning Area is to make public 30 Urbanism Urban and spatial planning in Japan • M. Tominaga National Land Use Planning Law (Individual method) City Planning Law National Land Use City region City Planning Areas Planning National Spatial Planning Act. Act for Improvement of Agricultural Promotion Areas National Spatial National Planning Agricultural region Agricultural Promotion Areas Planning Forest Law National Forests Forest region Local Forests with Regional Forest Plan Prefectural Planning Land use master Natural Parks Law plan National Park Natural park region Prefectural Nature Park Local Autonomy Act. Nature Land transaction Conservation Wilderness Natural Environment Act Conservation Areas Municipal planning control Municipal Basic Nature conservation Natural Environment Conservation Areas Concept region Prefectural Naturale Environment Conservation Areas Fig. 3. The national planning system in Japan City Planning Area City Planning Area Town B Administrative Area City A City C Town D Border of Administrative Area Case 1: City Planning Area combined with Administrative Area Case 2: A City Planning Area consists of a number of municipalities City Planning Area Town B City Planning Area City A Administrative Area City C Town D Border of Administrative Area Case 3: City Planning Area is a part of Administrative Area Case 4: A City Planning Area consists of a number of municipalities and a part of it is outside of City Planning Area Fig. 4. 4 cases to specify the city planning area A City Planning Area (divided) B City Planning Area (undivided) Urbanization Promoting Area Use district Urbaniation-restricted area Undevelopable Outside of the use district in undivided city planning area Developable Outside of City Planning Area Fig. 5. The conceptual diagram of area division 31 Urbanism. Arhitectură. Construcţii • Vol. 2 • Nr. 4 • 2011 • Large urban cities have to mandatory 2.4 The use districts and group rule of divide the City Planning Area into two buildings areas. This area division is effective to There are 12 kinds of use districts - 7 kinds centralize the public investments in the of residential districts, 2 kinds of Urbanization Promoting Area and control commercial districts and 3 kinds of certain amount of developments in the industrial districts - prepared in the City Urbanization-restricted Area. On the other planning law and these districts can be hand, local cities can choose whether supecified in the Urbanization Promoting divide the City Planning Area or not, Area and the Undivided City Planning because once the area divided, it turns to Area selectively. Each district controls the be more difficult to develop in the land use (Fig.7). For example, hotels cannot Urbanization-restricted Area. As options be developed in Category 1 exclusive low for Undivided City Planning Area, there building residential zone. Depends on the are 12 different kinds of “Use Districts” in objective of each district, it can be possible which control the purpose of land use and to decide the building coverage, floor- its figure. Local cities which is not divided space ratio, height limitation, floor-space in the City Planning Area can designate the ratio limitation of road, diagonal line Use Districts selectively and control limitation for road and adjacent land and developments because in Undivided City shadow area limitation. Planning Area, all developments are allowed in principle. According to the City Planning Law, Article 29, a person who is planning to use land for development action should get permission from prefectural governor. The target size of each development action is different between in the Urbanization Promoting Area, the Undivided City Planning Area and outside of the City Planning Area and development action is Fig. 7. The use district of a part of Sendai city required to meet technical standards. Additionally in Urbanization-restricted Japanese building code (rule) is Area, there are strict locational criteria and regulated by Building Standard Act and it few development actions which meet the sets out minimum standard (but it extends criteria can be constructed. to so minute) of the site, facilities, infrastructure, usage and so on of a building. Whole codes can be divided into The City Planning Area Single code and Group code. Single code zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzUrbanization Promoting Area Urbanization-restricted Area sets out about safety and health of a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz － which already forms urban － which should be controlled zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzarea and should be urbanized urbanization building itself.
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